The Flood, in Austria
Posted on:: September 2nd, 2005
The flood continues to be front-page news here in Austria. The stories focus on the suffering, the looting, and the political impact.
The scale of the disaster is horrifying. It’s not that I thought the US was safe in a “Bush to Nature: Bring it On!” sort of way. But I would have thought that we could ameliorate the effects far faster. This is horrifying, scary, humbling, sad beyond words.
My hotel room looks out over the Danube, a river peaceably within its banks, making it even harder to imagine the suffering of my fellow citizens. The Red Cross donation button works even here, but I am still too many removes from the reality of Katrina. My heart and hopes go to the victims and those working on their behalf.
hi there in austria,
please excuse that this is a post that doesnt refer to the issue, please read it anyway!
am a 52 year old woman from belgium and ask your help for a guy who was sentenced to death and whos execution is scheduled for 13.december 2005.
there is only one person on earth who can prevent this execution : the austrian arnold schwarzenegger.
the person sentenced to death is tookie williams. he was convicted 35 years ago (!) for killing 4 people . there are doubts about if he really commited the murder. i dont know if he did but even i am convinced that he was a “bad finger” at the time …today he is a great guy who already helped tenthousands of street kids not to go the way he went.
he wrote kids books to help street kids making the decision not to live a live in violence and not to join gangs. he also is involved in projects for kids and he is adviser for many people working in leading positions with street kids.
he was several times nominated for the nobel prize of peace as well as for the nobel prize literatur.
i think he is a role model for what we call rehabilitation and he is of incredible importance for millions of streetkids and also for possible victims of what those street kids can become without the help of tookie williams.
i am against death penalty anyway, but in this case it would be even more an irresponsible crime.
tenthousands of people all over the world try to save this mans life right at this moment and write to arnold schwarzenegger to grant clemency.
i think that people of austria have a special impact on him cuz he said in an interview, that this decision would be a dread for him and that two brains would fight in his body about how to decide, the austrian one which sees death penalty as a sin and anthema and the american one.
PLEASE inform yourself about stanley “tookie” williams .. what he was and what he became.
PLEASE sign the petition …. or even better … CALL schwarzenegger at 916-445-2841 (u need to put 001 before that number if u call from austria …
or write him an email to [email protected] …
fax him ( 001 )916-445-4633 .
show him that european values and humanity count, even in america.
this is the text of the official clemecy petition this is the petition you can sign
this is tokies website where you find information about his work , his aplogy , a letter to the youth, a peace protocol he made for street gangs which is already signed by many gangs and much more.
i want to point out, that i am NOT affiliated in any kind with tookie williams or any
people he knows…. i just read about him and felt the urge to come in action …
PLEASE do the same!
thx very much for your patience with this long text and for any kind of help you provide to save this mans life!
feel free to copy this and forward to all your friends, blogs, whatever you can think of, just spread the info.
peace
n., belgium